Happy Easter, y’all. What a great day. It was beautiful and sunny and warm all day on the trail. Hopefully it’s this nice back in PA. We put it around 16 miles today and it was easily our best day. It started early with some “trail magic”, where locals leave goodies near roads for thru-hikers.

How awesome is that? I annihilated these in 5 seconds…

Then we summitted Rocky Mtn, which had some nice views.

Then we summitted Tray Mtn…

which had some similarly cool vistas.

The day was tough with a lot of constant elevation change. Surprisingly the toughest climb was called Kelly Knob at the end of the day.

Since we’re now a good 16 miles ahead of schedule we’re taking a “near-o” day tomorrow – near zero mileage. We’re hiking about 3 or 4 miles to get a shuttle in to the Blueberry Patch Hostel, where our 2nd maildrop, a bed, laundry machines, showers, and other delicious amenities (omg pizza pizza pizzzzzzzzzaaaaaa) await.

Vital stats:
Mood – awesome
Physical state – sore but good
Smell – smoky (lit first campfire this evening)
Song stuck in my head – Happy body slow mind – Move at different speeds (on the road)

Had a very rainy night and morning. The tarp dripped a little during the downpour, which was annoying but not a big deal. I’ll have to reseal the seams when I can get some silicone sealant. The hike today was mostly off and on rain and mist…

Cowrock Mountain in the mist

For the most part the hike was a little easier today with no major climbs. We mostly hiked along the side of some fairly steep mountains and ridges.

We ended up hiking about 14.5 miles and called it a day. Tomorrow looks tougher with two pretty big climbs early on with Rocky Mountain and Tray Mountain, which are both close to Blood Mountain in elevation between 4000-4500 feet.